The Viking raiders with a basket of kittens as their symbol and a dodo bird as a figurehead have embraced the iconography of vulnerable, harmless things, and thus are inviting the more aggressive Vikings to destroy them. Hence, the chase is on.
They were probably pulling it instead.
The two dudes at the back of the kitten ship who’re probably the officers are dressed in short white sorta-pleated skirts and what looks like a woman’s top in bright red. The garb on the Vikings in the other ship is real small, but looks more like traditional Larson clothing for brutes: a crude A-neck shirt/smock thing in a dirty brown or gray.
I’m not sure about that. They are small and there isn’t a ton of detail, but I tried zooming in, here is a screen grab.
It could be meant to feminize them, but it also isn’t that far off from actual armor, such as what you might see on a gladiator.
(Just imagine the top is red, and leather skirt is white.)
I’m not saying you’re wrong, but given how the other elements are large and meant to be prominent and obvious, and the characters are drawn so small, I’m not sure if Larson was trying to make their outfits part of the joke or it’s just armor lacking in detail. But you could be right.
One detail in your favor; the “tough” Vikings all have horns while the “weak” ones do not, which itself is probably an attempt to emasculate them via their outfit. And that’s a pretty obvious detail. So I’m leaning toward thinking you’re onto something.
I don’t think their outfit is meant to be a punchline or anything, just, he was putting people in the boats, and they had to be dressed somehow, and traditional Viking garb just didn’t fit in right with the rest of the goofyboat.
That does make sense, thank you.
Well-played, Sir!
Yes, excellent.
Wow that is the exact phrase I was thinking of posting to @silenus when I saw that quip. Great minds eh
This has always been my personal favorite:
The Chase is thematically similar to another Larsen drawing, “Although skilled with their pillow arsenal, the Wimpodites were favorite targets of Viking attacks”.
Attempted link (cartoon #6)
https://screenrant.com/far-side-viking-comics-gary-larson-list/
Usually, overthinking Larson just robs it of the funny. You expect Vikings to have fierce iconography like a dragon and snake flag and a dragon figurehead. Having a basket of kittens and a goofy duck (while still being a bunch of armed Vikings in a war boat) is just a pleasant bit of absurdism. I don’t think it’s any deeper than that.
Nice callback.
This one’s my favorite:
Apparently also inexplicable to a lot of people.
Sadly, I think that’s on Larson’s inability to make it clear that it is an eye on a couch (more like a mattress) rather than a couch with an eye.
Hard to beat the classics… The Thagomizer!
Or a man who’s passive-aggressively expressing his anger by pressing himself so far down into the couch that only one of his eyes is visible.
I knew it was a lone eyeball because I wanted it to be a lone eyeball. I think eyeballs are cool. (Inexplicably, my son also shares this passion for eyeballs. I wouldn’t have guessed that would be genetic.)
I really hope Gary Larson isn’t reading this thread.
I mean, he must spend half his life rolling his eyes at all the meanings that average people try to read into his cartoons…
… but here we have the crême de la crêmesicle of brilliant smartypants, and even we flounder around with “Well, actually, maybe the hose in front of the body shop represents…”
(GL: “It represents something to fill a big blank spot. Sheesh…”)
A tribute to my late sister’s all-time favorite cartoon.